When you enter a barter network you increase your market base as you get new customers which the network, itself, brings you with little, or no, additional effort on your part.

The reason people are interested in making purchases from you using barter are as follows:

They are member of the same barter network as you.

They save cash (as they have earned barter dollars through selling their excess time or products via the barter network to customers they otherwise would not have had).

They need your services (but typically they would not have heard of you in the cash market and/or they have existing cash relationships which, without proper incentive, they would be unwilling to change).

They, in turn, acquire new customers (when you make a purchase from a business using cash you have no guarantee that they will purchase from you. When you purchase using barter dollars this money stays within the network and either that business, or another it spends with, will come back to buy from you – thereby creating repeat business).

Let’s analyze what would it cost to get this customer in the CASH market. To calculate that first you need to answer the following questions:-

Do you need more sales staff because obviously your existing sales staff is at capacity and/or this is growth over and above their ability to make new sales?

Would you need a new advertising campaign to attract the same number of customers in the cash market?

Would you need to come up some special promotion offers like discounts or free gifts to get the new customer base? If so how much and for how long?

How much for an advertising campaign to create the same amount of sales?

Is there any guarantee that investing this cash would REALLY generate the same amount of new sales?

As discussed earlier the reason people will purchase via barter is because it costs them less than using cash. These customers are not even a part of your cash customer base so the only guaranteed way to attract them is via the barter exchange network.

Secondly, in the cash market you must spend money on advertising, or discounting, in order to get new customers. In a barter network you only pay a commission of between 7% to 10% once you complete a deal with the new customer – not before – meaning that there are no upfront costs for attracting the new customer. You may even be able to use the barter dollars you have earned to buy advertising which, in turn, will attract more cash customers to your business.

Hence, if you are part of a barter or commerce network you not only get some new customers that are not available in the cash market but also advertising space which you can use to attract cash paying businesses.

Brought to you by Neha Gupta
Marketing Department
Ormita Australia Limited
<a href=”http://www.ormita.com.au”>http://www.ormita.com.au</a>

For more information on this program see http://www.barterexchangetrainers.com/our-programs/for-exchange-owners/four-week-sales-boot-camp/

Get the full story at http://www.barterexchangetrainers.com/our-programs/for-exchange-owners/turbo-charge-your-member-training/

It works like this: if you swap like-for-like clothes – a high street fashion item for another high street fashion item or a designer brand for another upmarket label – you pay a service charge of between €5 and €10 to the store. If you swap a high street item for a designer product, the service charge can climb to €30 while for a reverse swap, designer to high street, the service charge is negligible.

What a fantastic idea! In a time where cash is scarce and desire still abounds, a clothing store takes in trades on good, used clothing, and for a modest fee lets you take something new home. I celebrate the store’s ability to be creative.

I remember on time talking to a client that had taken in a used RV for a down payment on a house he owned. He didn’t want the RV, didn’t know what to do with the RV, and was just going to let it rust in his driveway. I got him to let me take some pictures and do a little marketing on it, and we were able to turn that RV in to new carpet, new furniture, and accomodations in Anaheim, not to mention about $5k in radio advertising.

Never underestimate the value of your stuff and your time. Bartering is king right now, and that means your stuff and time has more value than it had before, not less.

I pulled this part of the article to illustrate a good point about the barter industry that I think we take for granted: the security you have when dealing with a reputable trade exchange.

3. Let the barterer beware. Craigslist doesn’t prescreen users. So if you’re looking to swap for a service you really need — such as baby-sitting — start by contacting friends and neighbors. Or try a site that verifies the addresses and phone numbers of its users, such as BarterBee.com. BarterBee lets you trade CDs, movies and video games free, and it will post a detailed description of your item for you. But, says Robert Alvin, BarterBee.com’s chief executive, be sure you know what your product or service is worth. “If you list it too high, it won’t move,” he says.

What You Need to Know About Bartering – Kiplinger.com

When you are dealing with complete strangers over the internet, like on Craigslist, you never know the quality of what you are going to get. I have in my browser sidebar a couple of RSS feeds from Craigslist for barter. I scan them daily, and every once in a while I may attempt to contact one of the posters to see if we can make a deal. Not so when I look at the member directory of the exchange I belong to.

One of the best things we have as exchange members is the knowledge that the exchange has our back. Usually, when someone ponies up some money to become a member of an exchange, they at least have that limited financial commitment to produce good products or services for the other members of the exchange. When you barter one on one, there is no commitment other than what people are telling you they will do.

Second, someone at your exchange has probably tried working with the other member you want to do business with, and can give you some very important advice and feedback about that other business.

Third, if a deal goes sour, and you are in the right, your exchange is going to work with you to see that you are made whole.

You get none of this when working one to one deals out in the world. It just doesn’t work like that. In a one to one barter you are at the mercy of the provider, and if something goes wrong the only thing you can effectively do to make things right is take them to court, which is expensive and costly, in more than just money.

I think trade exchanges should capitalize on this and use it in every conversation they have with potential members. If you aren’t touting your exchange’s ability to back up members in the instance of a problem with a barter deal, then you are missing one of the effective tools you could be using to help people to join your exchange.

Interestingly enough, the demand for my particular services, which generally include web design, low-level video production for the internet, and internet marketing consulting (among my barter consulting), has increased wildly in the last thirty days. I say the demand has increased. There’s a new question popping up all over my new client conversations:

Do you ever trade? Can we do some barter?

Before this year, maybe one out of ten new clients of mine would ask me if I could trade some work. Now, it’s more like three out of four are asking for a barter. I don’t mind, I love barter, but can only handle so much of it at a time, right?

If I still owned or managed a barter exchange, I would be loving this year. I could guarantee to you that my sales would have gone through the roof. Instead of my standard 10-15 clients per month, I would be signing up at least thirty new clients. Why? What’s the difference?

People still want to buy things. They want to advance their business. They want to increase their market share. Cash is tight. Banks aren’t loaning. Credit limits are getting pulled back. How do you handle that as a business owner? Barter. And if you know how to talk barter, all of a sudden in 2009 you are talking everyone’s language.

Yes, you are going to have to make concessions to get the clients. Yes, you are going to have to be flexible. Consider the alternative…stay exactly where you always have been…

The Reader’s Digest, America’s most widely read magazine (according to them) even has included an article on how to barter better (http://www.rd.com/advice-and-know-how/4-tricks-of-swapping-and-bartering/article161322.html) and they don’t write articles on anything that doesn’t have a significant public interest.

So, it’s a magic time in the barter industry. Are you taking advantage of it or are you going to languish with the rest of the business world? Are you going to make a difference for businesses in your community, or go about your business?

If you need some help taking advantage of the magical time in the trade world, let us know. We’d be glad to help.